Posted by Arnold (192.231.106.2) on March 20, 2004 at 21:21:07:
In Reply to: Re: Japanese Drawing posted by Dan McKee on March 20, 2004 at 05:31:50:
Hi Dan,
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. Your interpretation certainly has a ring of truth. The seller, a reputable and knowledgeable dealer, stated that the instructions were memory notes for the artist, "a common practice". However, I have yet to identify another example. I read through the several introductory pages in Clark’s book dealing with the preparation for paintings which is very interesting. I’d guess my questions are answered in detail in Japanese sources which unfortunately I can’t access.
I'd be glad to forward an image of my drawing for all to view and also send you a larger image by email (please contact me at asat@burnham-inst.org). However, I will need some help in posting the image since I haven't mastered this process. I think Hans Olof Johanssen posted an image for someone so maybe he could help?
Although surprised by the detailed instructions in my drawing, it made sense to me that a Ukiyo artist would prepare for a painting in this way. Thus many Ukiyo paintings as this drawing are very similar in design to the images you see in prints. Consequently, it seemed to me that it would be natural to prepare for Ukiyo paintings in a similar way. Indeed, Clark pictures a shita-e prepared by Shun’ie in the 1790s for a painting which shows that Ukiyo paintings were planned for in considerable detail at this time (however, no notation of color in the example). I’d guess though that if an artist used a shita-e for a painting that it would be useful to note the colors before beginning the painting since colors are integral and also it would be familiar practice from assigning colors to keyblocks for printers. I'd guess further that there were practical considerations since by preassigning colors they would have a list of colors to collect for completing the painting. Continuing with this idle speculation, I'd guess that an artist could also make use of templates of this sort for making more that a few copies of a particular painting, providing a financial incentive. Thus, I found it interesting that Jenkins in "Floating World Revisited" reports that a painting was exactly reproduced by Eishi (II-7, pp 128-129) indicating that this was a practice that may have been familiar to Eishi’s students.
Regardless, if copying drawings with color notation was a common practice then that is most likely what I have and any collector should be warned.
Arnold